The Hippocratic oath

[fpb]

I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art - if they desire to learn it - without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfil this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.


Translation from the Greek by Ludwig Edelstein. From The Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation, and Interpretation, by Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1943.

Comments

[rfachir.livejournal.com]

What does this part mean?
I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

[lyssiae.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's talking about surgery?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

That he will not practice as a surgeon. That is still formally the case in Britain, although in the rest of the world the division between the two professions has broken down in the last two or three centuries.

[rfachir.livejournal.com]

Makes me feel very sorry for ancient Greeks with kidney stones, but I think I like the British system better - my own hypersensitivity makes it a lot more comfortable. If a doctor can't do any mischief with a knife, I can get along without writing pages of "don't touch me" instructions. But I live here, with an extremely conservative husband, and one sister is a doctor, and one is a lawyer, so I'm doomed to writer's cramp.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

According to medical historians, Greek surgeons were excellent. Roman surgeons were certainly outstanding - some of their instruments have been found, and they are of the same standard of excellence as modern ones (I mean, of course, outside things like electronic instruments and X-rays).

[privatemaladict.livejournal.com]

Heh. I remember one of my friends asking me, when I was about to start med school, when I'd be taking "The Hippopotamus Oath". And another asked when I'd be taking "The hypocritic oath".